Sponsoring CDC Center:

Project Focus Area:

Examine the characteristics of health and disease among the pediatric
Medicaid fee-for-service and managed care populations, using the linked
National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and Medicaid Analytic (MAX) files.

Project Description:

In
collaboration with senior researchers, the Fellow will initiate projects using
the newly created NHIS/MAX Medicaid administrative data linked files. These data files contain
individual-level Medicaid eligibility and utilization information linked to the
detailed health and demographic data collected from the NCHS national
surveys. Although linked NHIS/MAX
Medicaid files are adjusted during analysis such that the population of
children eligible for linkage is nationally representative in terms of race, age,
and sex, it is not known whether children eligible for linkage are nationally
representative in terms of disease prevalence and measures of health. In addition, myriad analyses can be
conducted using the claims data of children with fee-for-service Medicaid
plans. However, as Managed care
plans account for an ever-increasing percentage of children in Medicaid, it is
not clear whether children with fee-for-service Medicaid are representative of
children with Managed care Medicaid plans in terms of disease prevalence and
health measures.

This
fellowship will focus primarily on analyses to answer these questions, and
then, as time allows, use these data for further research. Specific further topics of research
(child health conditions, disparities, statistical methodology, etc.) can be
determined by the interest and background of the Fellow. The current interest in usage of the
linked data underscore the importance of understanding the representativeness of
the linked population to the entire Medicaid population, and the
representativeness of the Medicaid-fee-for-service population to the entire
Medicaid population, including managed care.

It is anticipated that these research activities will result in one or more published reports or journal articles. Ample support in epidemiology, medicine, statistics, and economics, as well as IT assistance, is available within the Office.

Location

The
fellowship location is the Hyattsville, Maryland office of NCHS. Hyattsville is a suburb of Washington D.C.,
about 1 mile from the University of Maryland College Park campus and 10 miles
from the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda. This allows easy inter­change between the numerous public
health researchers working at the various agencies and institutions located in
the national capital area. It is
easily accessible from downtown Washington by Metrorail.